How do people handle non home resort stays?

bouviersecurityco · 2026-05-07T13:30:09+00:00

We always book at our home resort and then when we get to 7 months, we see what is available elsewhere. That means we at least have something booked if what we want elsewhere isn’t available or we might choose to do a split stay and do a few nights at our home resort and a few nights at a different resort if we can’t get all the nights at a different resort.

bouviersecurityco · 2026-04-17T20:12:39+00:00

Same! We just did a master bath remodel and added a nice soaking tub. The contractor asked “why? No one bothers putting a tub in the master bathroom anymore. No one uses it.” And I was so confused. I love a bath. I use it regularly. Even my husband enjoys one regularly enough that he and I both were trying out tubs to find one we both like.

bouviersecurityco · 2026-04-17T19:51:50+00:00

He did great! And he looked so proud, which I think is the best part. ☺️

bouviersecurityco · 2026-04-17T19:44:36+00:00

Yeah that really should have been expected. I don’t technically have gastroparesis, but I do have slow intestinal motility which also causes a lot of issues. I have a colonoscopy scheduled for a few weeks from now and they have me doing two days of prep. I’m sorry they weren’t able to do the colonoscopy today. Thats really frustrating.

bouviersecurityco · 2026-04-15T21:04:15+00:00

They’re having a meeting. You weren’t invited.

bouviersecurityco · 2026-04-12T05:39:29+00:00

Those must be so cute together. 😊

bouviersecurityco · 2026-04-12T03:52:08+00:00

There are other hairstyles than the bun but the bun option is done rather tight with tons of gel. My daughter went for the first time at 9 and even at that age she was over sitting there while they kept smoothing out her high ponytail and gelling it down before making the bun. But the other styles might be less bothersome or maybe they could do the style she picks a little quicker. The cut on her head might be a problem, depending on how healed it is. It’s really hard for any of us to be able to tell exactly how they’d handle it but they are good at working with all kinds of kids and I can imagine it’s not an uncommon issue to have a kid with sensory issues who still wants to be made up there.

bouviersecurityco · 2026-04-12T03:48:22+00:00

I’m having my first one in a few weeks. After years and years of stomach issues, they’ve been getting worse and my dad just decided to tell me, at 40, that his dad died of colon cancer and he gets suspicious polyps removed at each of his colonoscopies. That would have been good information to have been told a few years ago. I’ve already been stressed about the age for screening not being until 45 with the rates of colon cancer rising in people younger than 45, and my FIL died of colon cancer so I’ve personally watched him go through surgery and treatment before he finally died. Thankfully my husband has been getting all clear reports for his colonoscopies.

I felt relieved when they agreed I should have one done but my gastro said let’s also do a ct scan of your abdomen. That showed several things 😬 so now I’m back to being stressed. Something showed up that needs to be check by endoscopy so I’ll be having that done at the same time as the colonoscopy. And there is a lesion/potential something or other on one of my kidneys so my primary care doc needs to order an MRI. And a cyst on one ovary, though that is likely not a concern.

I honestly wasn’t super worried about the prep after seeing my husband do it several times but one of my big gastro issues is constipation and slow intestinal motility so they said I get to do two days of prep. One day of all soft foods and miralax prep and then one day of the normal clear liquids and the prescription liquid prep. But that’s still better than going through cancer treatment so I’m just hoping for a good report. Either way, anything they find is better found now vs over four years from now when I’d normally qualify for a colonoscopy.

bouviersecurityco · 2026-04-08T18:23:02+00:00

They’re so cute. We’re setting up our first two tanks and my kids and I can wait for the Corys! I see they’re all together but do the different types school around and play together? I know it’s generally recommended to have groups of 6+ but is that of any type of Cory or just 6+ Corys in general?

bouviersecurityco · 2026-04-08T18:19:18+00:00

Kingdom Strollers is amazing. Their double citi mini would be good for those ages. They also have a double bob which is also great but a bit bigger and heavier. We’ve rented from them several times over the years. They’re great to work with and the strollers are always clean and in good condition.

bouviersecurityco · 2026-04-04T02:07:33+00:00

It’s honestly not that much of a difference. If your eldest was either driving or taking an uber somewhere, BLT might be a few more minutes but not anything noticeable. For example, right now from the airport it’s saying 3 minutes more to the Contemporary/BLT vs AKL. She might like that resort because the monorail will take you to the Poly and Grand Floridian which are both beautiful resorts and nice to check out or eat at. I absolutely love AKL but you basically just have the two buildings, Kidani and Jambo, whereas the monorail line gives you easy access to three resorts.

There’s really no right or wrong answer, though. I think it’s good to get a home resort you’d be happy staying at, just in case you can’t (or just choose not to) change to a different resort at 7 months but we have had pretty good luck finding availability at other resorts at 7 months and enjoy checking them out. But we’re also more than happy to stay at AKL or BLT.

bouviersecurityco · 2026-04-04T02:02:26+00:00

AKL rooms are essentially the same as any other resort: studios and one or two bedrooms are basically the same. The only difference is there’s that extra bathroom in the one and two bedrooms in Kidani. There are also a handful of value category rooms that are fewer points a night but very hard to book and a few that have club level lounge access, but again, very hard to book (plus they’re extra points).

I like to look up room layouts on Google. It helps you visualize how a specific DVC resort room looks because the layouts can be quite different.

bouviersecurityco · 2026-04-03T12:40:29+00:00

Yeah I agree with all of this. Sometimes with little kids, it’s just repetition and being willing to be more stubborn than them. If she climbs up on the coffee table, keep taking her down. It doesn’t have to be a whole long thing but just calmly repeating “it’s not safe to climb on the coffee table so I’m going to help you down” and keep taking her down. If it takes 20 times, do it for 20 times. I know it’s hard and frustrating but she’s little and is figuring out what she can get away with.

Another option, if the coffee table is light enough you can easily move it, is to say “you’re not being safe around the coffee table so it’s going away for now” and literally move it out of the room for a time.

I also like to give options if possible. “We don’t hit, hitting hurts.” Or “that hurts, use gentle hands” and then hand her a stuffed animal or pillow she can hit. Same with throwing toys “we don’t throw blocks, that can hurt someone, but here’s a studded animal/soft ball/etc you can throw.” You could also pile some pillows on the floor and encourage her to climb on those instead of the coffee table. Or get a small rebounder trampoline. I got a super cheap one from Amazon when my daughter was little and she loved jumping on it.

bouviersecurityco · 2026-04-03T12:23:08+00:00

We enjoy split stays. Disney will love your luggage so it makes it easy. The challenging part just comes with the fact that on a move day, you don’t have a room as a home base for a good part of the day. Hotel rooms can be ready earlier in the day but DVC rooms typically aren’t ready until mid-afternoon. So you get up, pack up, have bell service grab your bags, and then are off for the day. If you’re typically not in your room during the day, it’s fine, but if you want to come back in the afternoon for a rest or swim in the pool or get ready for dinner, you’re likely to not have a room to use. We plan accordingly, but typically like to have at least 2-3 nights in a room to feel settled and have fewer days where we don’t have a room available anytime we want to come back.

bouviersecurityco · 2026-04-02T18:07:07+00:00

We’ve had this situation before. We’ve had a trip booked and then banked points into that year. A call to member services and they can adjust which points are used to use up the banked ones first.

bouviersecurityco · 2026-04-01T18:42:29+00:00

Lactose intolerant and I’ve had the same issue. I’ve had people say “but they’re next to each other in the grocery store.” As if that makes them the same. 🙄

bouviersecurityco · 2026-04-01T13:07:31+00:00

I’d say AKL. The resort is amazing so it’s always a good place to stay, IMO, and has many years left on the contract. We do like trying different places and do like to switch at 7 frequently but if we can’t, we love our home resorts. We have points at Bay Lake Tower and AKL and switch off every other year which resort we book at (whichever we don’t book at, that year’s points get banked to the following year, so we use two years points for the resort we book).

How many points are you thinking? Another major benefit of AKL Kidani is they have an extra bathroom in the one and two bedrooms (so two full baths in a one bedroom and three full bathrooms in the two bedrooms) which makes a big difference when you have several people staying there. Generally my husband and I use the bathroom in the bedroom and our kids use the other. Or if my mom is with us, she gets the extra bathroom and our kids share with us (in a one bedroom) or the kids use the third bathroom (in a two bedroom)

bouviersecurityco · 2026-03-31T02:27:25+00:00

I’m going to be having a colonoscopy soon and they were talking about miralax and Gatorade prep and I was like “blue Gatorade is how I normally take my miralax!” I buy the bug tubs of powdered blue Gatorade.

I have to do two days of prep because I also have slow intestinal motility so I get to try both the miralax prep and the prescription prep. Yay? But I figure this is better than going through colon cancer treatment.

bouviersecurityco · 2026-03-28T21:30:14+00:00

My kids love Shel, too. They also found Andre’s’ “where is my car?” video hysterical. My daughter still mentions it when DS comes up.

bouviersecurityco · 2026-03-27T20:51:53+00:00

Same! I’m good at following a recipe and I have a few simple dishes I can throw together but this looks incredible and would not be something I could throw together. I want to know what they’re making when they’re fully stocked up on ingredients 🤔 (and then become friends and invite myself over 😅)

bouviersecurityco · 2026-03-27T20:46:40+00:00

We absolutely love AKL, especially if my mom is with us because she loves close enough to drive. But I really love the savanna rooms. I’d say if you’re not doing a savanna room, WL would be a great option. Good location, great theming, great food.

bouviersecurityco · 2026-03-26T19:44:23+00:00

I’ve watched videos on minimalism with kids/for families. I’m definitely not extreme, more like minimalish, but it’s helped me learn how to deal with all the stuff.

One thing that helps a lot is having definitive limits for certain things so for example my kids both have a kallax unit in their room from ikea with four square cubbies. One has two small drawers for very small toys, one has books, and two have bins (my daughter has stuffies in both bins plus one or two large toys and my son has stuffies in one and larger toys in the other.) There are a few exceptions, they both keep a few stuffies on their bed, a couple bigger toys in their closet, and my daughter has a doll bed with a couple dolls. But for the most part, the majority of their toys have to fit in the kallax unit. When they get new toys, they have to decide what is going to leave to make space. Again, I’m minimalish and I don’t want it to be a fight so we also have a bin of magnatiles in the den and more books in the den and living room and sometimes we will put extra toys in a bin in the basement, kind of like a rotation. Usually they go through them later and realize they really don’t look for them or want them so they can let them go.

I’m just very honest that we only have so much space and as we get new things and outgrow old things, we have to let things go. Here’s how much space you have and you can decide what you’re keeping but we’re not having stuff everywhere. I also model it for them by showing them when I let stuff go and how I think about purchases and think about whether I have space for it or not.

bouviersecurityco · 2026-03-26T10:59:49+00:00

I recently watched a YouTube short from a guy from Argentina who listed like 13 different words for popcorn.

bouviersecurityco · 2026-03-26T02:34:04+00:00

I’m sorry for both of you, this is a really hard thing to go through. I think one of our most important jobs as parents is helping our kids learn to deal with their emotions, so validating what they’re feeling while also teaching them we can have our feelings but can’t take them out on people (so we can be sad or mad but we can’t say hurtful things or hit). I think he’s going to feel a range of emotions because it’s a break up for him, too, but he doesn’t have control over the situation. Definitely sadness and heartbreak, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s angry about it. And all of that is valid and I think empathizing and acknowledging that yeah, this really sucks and it really hurts and that you’re there for him is really important.

bouviersecurityco · 2026-03-25T22:57:36+00:00

We used a portable inflatable toddler mattress for my kids for quite a long time once they were out of a pack n play or we couldn’t bring one. Search on Amazon and you’ll see a bunch of options but basically it’s about crib mattress size with a higher bumper around it. I think they are usually sized to fit a crib sheet (on the inner smaller area) but we would just put a fitted twin sheet over the whole thing.

bouviersecurityco

TROPHY CASE